Liberty is an inherently offensive lifestyle. Living in a free society guarantees that each one of us will see our most cherished principles and beliefs questioned and in some cases mocked. That psychic discomfort is the price we pay for basic civic peace. It's worth it. It's a pragmatic principle. Defend everyone else's rights, because if you don't there is no one to defend yours. -- MaxedOutMama

I don't just want gun rights... I want individual liberty, a culture of self-reliance....I want the whole bloody thing. -- Kim du Toit

The most glaring example of the cognitive dissonance on the left is the concept that human beings are inherently good, yet at the same time cannot be trusted with any kind of weapon, unless the magic fairy dust of government authority gets sprinkled upon them.-- Moshe Ben-David

The cult of the left believes that it is engaged in a great apocalyptic battle with corporations and industrialists for the ownership of the unthinking masses. Its acolytes see themselves as the individuals who have been "liberated" to think for themselves. They make choices. You however are just a member of the unthinking masses. You are not really a person, but only respond to the agendas of your corporate overlords. If you eat too much, it's because corporations make you eat. If you kill, it's because corporations encourage you to buy guns. You are not an individual. You are a social problem. -- Sultan Knish

All politics in this country now is just dress rehearsal for civil war. -- Billy Beck

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

"When dealing with guns, the citizen acts at his peril."

Sorry about not posting. Life intrudes.

Most of the gunblogosphere has been commenting on the case of Brian Aitken who is now serving a seven year sentence for doing something perfectly legal in almost every other state in the union.  It's even legal in New Jersey, unless a prosecutor can convince a jury otherwise.  A New Jersey jury, but a jury all the same.


The title of this post comes from a New Jersey Superior Court decision wherein a man was convicted of possessing an "assault weapon" - a Marlin Model 60 .22 caliber rifle he'd won in a shooting competition and had never even taken the manufacturer's tags off the triggerguard - because said .22 could hold more than fifteen rounds in its tubular magazine.  Another law unique to New Jersey.

Do you want to know why McDonald v. Chicago was such a big deal?  Because laws like the one that put Mr. Aitken in jail exist only because of the 1875 Supreme Court case U.S. v. Cruikshank wherein the Court stated that the Second Amendment protected the right to "keep and bear arms for a lawful purpose" only from FEDERAL infringement.  The states were free to infringe to their heart's content.

And New Jersey has.

McDonald says that the right is and should be protected against state infringement as well, and if the Federal government can't make it illegal, no state government can either.  Make no mistake, this fight is going to take decades, but if we don't keep it up people like Brian Aitken and Albert K. Kwan, and people you'll never hear about will continue to get railroaded.

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